George Herriman
George Herriman was an influential American cartoonist born in 1880 in New Orleans, Louisiana, though he later moved to Los Angeles, which he considered his true home. Coming from a mixed Creole and African American background, Herriman navigated the complexities of racial identity during a time of significant segregation in the United States. His early artistic pursuits were discouraged by his father, a baker, who emphasized the practical need for bread over art. Nevertheless, Herriman's talent emerged early, finding publication in the Los Angeles Herald by the age of seventeen.
He gained prominence with his comic strip "Krazy Kat," which showcased unique storytelling and profound social commentary, earning admiration from notable figures such as President Woodrow Wilson and artist Willem de Kooning. The strip's setting, inspired by Arizona's Monument Valley, contributed to its distinctive appeal. Herriman's work, especially "Krazy Kat," not only entertained but also influenced future generations of cartoonists with its intellectual depth and artistic innovation. He continued to create until his death from nonalcoholic cirrhosis of the liver at sixty-three, leaving a legacy that remains significant in the world of comics.
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George Herriman
- Born: August 22, 1880
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
- Died: April 25, 1944
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Biography
Although George Joseph Herriman was born in 1880 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of George Joseph and Clara Morel Herriman, he moved to Los Angeles at an early age and considered California his true home. His father was a baker who discouraged his son’s artistic pursuits, telling him that in good times and bad, people need bread but can exist without art. Herriman’s family, who lived in New Orleans for three generations, was of mixed Creole- African American stock. At that time, anyone with a black ancestor was classified as Negro and, in much of the country, was subjected to the restrictions and humiliations of racial segregation. Young Herriman and his siblings were light enough to pass for white, but he told people that he was of Greek lineage or, after he discovered the Navajo country in Arizona, of Navajo lineage.
By the time he was seventeen, one of Herriman’s cartoons was published in the Los Angeles Herald, which subsequently hired him to work in a menial capacity. By the time he was twenty-one, the newspaper began publishing his cartoons in full color in its Sunday editions. By 1903, the year following his marriage to Mabel Lillian Bridge, Herriman was publishing a regular comic strip, Lariat Pete, in the San Francisco Chronicle. He soon followed this strip with Bud Smith.
Seeking greater opportunities, Herriman moved his family to New York City, where he worked in various capacities merely to survive, earning a meager living by painting billboards at Coney Island and by working as a barker for a carnival act. Eventually, he was hired by the New York World to produce cartoons focusing on sports and politics. In 1906, Herriman moved his family back to California, where publisher William Randolph Hearst, who admired his cartoons, hired him to work for the Los Angeles Examiner, a Hearst newspaper. Four years later, Hearst appointed him head of the comic art department of the New York Journal.
Herriman really came into his own when he took two characters from his comic strip, The Dingbat Family, and gave them a comic strip of their own, Krazy Kat. This strip is clearly Herriman’s most significant creation and gained a regular readership that included Hearst, President Woodrow Wilson, artist Willem de Kooning, poet E. E. Cummings, director Frank Capra, writer Gilbert Seldes, and the as-yet-undiscovered Walt Disney. Krazy Kat is essentially a triangulated love story. Krazy Kat loves Ignatz Mouse and Offissa B. Pupp loves Krazy Kat. Herriman sets this strip in a desert landscape inspired by Arizona’s Monument Valley, which was one of his favorite haunts. Future cartoonists were to employ a similar landscape for such characters as Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.
The intellectual content and social commentary of Herriman’s strips, particularly Krazy Kat, are strong and attracted a cadre of faithful followers, among them some of America’s most noted intellectuals. Herriman continued to write the Krazy Kat comic strip until shortly before he succumbed to nonalcoholic cirrhosis of the liver at the age of sixty-three. No attempt was made to have another writer continue Krazy Kat after Herriman’s death.